4th of July, 2011

Since Ethan was born, we have always been in Arizona over the 4th of July weekend. Up until now, he was always too young and it was too hot to ever think about taking him to see fireworks while we were out there. This year, we spent the long weekend visiting Grandma in Florida. We ended up getting back in Virginia early on the morning of the 4th, so we were lucky enough (after some much needed rest in the morning) to be able to celebrate the 4th of July festivities here at home.

Our neighborhood held it's very first 4th of July celebration at the pool, so we decided we would go and check it out. The kids had a blast swimming and enjoying all of the snacks and at the end Ethan got his face painted. Please note that all Ethan wanted was a couple of little fireworks on his face.... instead he got transformed into a firework....

Once the party was over, we came back to the house where we had a traditional 4th of July meal of burgers, corn on the cob and watermelon. Meanwhile, I had snuck out and purchased some basic fireworks. Since Ethan had never seen fireworks before, I just got some sparklers, black snakes, a couple of cukoos and a tank, nothing too crazy that would scare him. He loved it all! The noisy ones were definitely NOT his favorite, but as soon as  we explained that he could just cover his ears, it was all good. The best part of the evening is that we were able to go out on our back deck and enjoy all of the local community firework shows since our house overlooks the entire area. It was great to be able to watch them all from the comfort of our own house without having to fight the traffic or crowds and we could all just go inside when it was all over. I'm glad that we got home in time after our trip to Florida to be able to enjoy the holiday here at home with our family and neighbors.